After quickly stuffing the case into the back of the car, they started the journey home. It seemed to take much longer than the two hours it should have. Perhaps it was because the Jones' always drove slower in the rain, but mostly it was the thick tension between the three.
There was of course no shortage of chatter, Mr Jones couldn't help having a nervous bout of verbal diarrhoea. This was a trait that Alfred usually shared, but both he and his new half brother both were totally dazed by the whole situation.
Arthur had been looking out of the window at the scenery flying past, the landscape here was so different from home. He wasn't sure if he had landed on a different planet, or drifted off into some strange dream and would soon wake up and be back in his granny's cottage just outside Oxford. Everything just seemed bigger, even the driveway to the house felt surreally huge.
He wheeled his case into the house following the lead of his new family. There was a small porch outside the house and a big garage, along with a big living room, kitchen dining room, two bedrooms, a box room and a study. The house was a bit of a mess, they had obviously been trying to turn the box room into a bedroom for Arthur leaving its contents strewn throughout the house.
"Yeah, sorry the place is kinda a tip at the moment. I'll make it up to you but I think until we can get some of these boxes cleared we'd be best having you on the bunk beds in Al's room." His dad looked fairly embarrassed about the mess.
"C'mon I'll show you in…" Alfred mumbled, nervously opening the door to his room.
He hadn't worked out how to speak to his brother yet. He'd always wanted a sibling, but he just felt like this guy was a stranger.
A stranger stood in his room, probably judging his Star Wars posters and comic book collection. He felt suddenly self conscious of his superman bed sheets and the glow in the dark stickers all over his ceiling.
"I, err, call dibs on the top bunk… if you're okay with that" Alfred called with a nervous laugh that broke some of the tension.
"Oh, of course. Shall I bring my suitcase in here or will it not be long until the room is finished?"
The british teen spoke so properly that Alfred didn't really know how to respond, he just found himself thinking how he did always find the accent funny on tv.
"BOYS! I'M GOING TO ORDER PIZZA"
Both of them were relieved by the shout and Alfred raced out of the room to choose toppings.
Arthur stood in the room a bit longer. He thought about the effort that they must have gone to for him, he felt ashamed of being a such a burden. He wanted to be easy for them, polite and kind. He wanted them to barely notice him being there.
The rest of the evening was spent eating pizza and avoiding stepping on eggshells with their small talk. Alfred made them all watch the second Guardians of the Galaxy in the evening.
Alfred got more nervous towards the night, would Arthur change in the room in front of him? They were brothers, he thought, but they'd also only just met. To his great relief when Arthur went to brush his teeth he came back wearing green tartan pajama bottoms and what looked like an old t-shirt. This reassurance he felt for a bit, as the worry crept up that his captain america pj's made him look immature.
Arthur was woken up the next morning by Alfred bounding out of bed to get ready for school. He could tell his presence was unwanted in the boys room so he moved downstairs in his pajamas to have a cup of tea. The strong smell of coffee and the gentle waft of hot toast with butter filled the kitchen.
"Morning Arthur, help yourself to coffee and toast. How'd you feel about us sorting your room out today?"
"Uh, Yes. Good Morning" The bright and earliness of their morning caught him off guard, he wasn't much of a morning person.
Once Arthur discovered there was only coffee to drink his outlook for mornings here turned a bit sour, but he tried to sound cheery in between the flurries of Alfred going to school.
The rest of the day was taken up by slowly moving boxes from the small room to the study and garage, followed by dragging in a small desk and chair. Steve had taken a while digging through some of the boxes while they were going, checking if any of it was things Arthur might want, like a desk lamp or picture frames. It couldn't help but to be noticed that a lot of the boxes seemed to contain personal effects, Arthur's mind wandered to the missing Mrs Jones.
Onces it had been excavated the room already contained a single bed, shelf and a chest of draws.
"There we go!" Steve huffed as he came back from moving the last box out to the garage. "I guess you'll want to unpack now and make yourself at home"
Arthur clunked his case into the room and opened it, there wasn't much in there. Some of his clothes, a couple of well worn books. It didn't take fifteen minutes to shove his clothes in the draws and stick the books on the shelf. He did take the time to slip a photo into the frame Mr Jones had given him. The room didn't look like it was his, it just looked like a guest room with a few of his things. Although, most of his things were gone anyway.
He returned back downstairs, surprising Mr Jones who expected it to take a lot longer. Maybe he didn't notice the comparatively small size of Arthur's suitcase, given that he was supposed to be making a permanent move.
Alfred, however, did notice. The first thing he wanted to see when he got back from school was the room free of boxes.
"Wow, it's so small and empty, didn't you bring any stuff?"
"Erm, well I couldn't bring a lot with me. Most of my things I think were sold or donated to charity" He thought of all the books and personal items he'd left behind, then of Alfred's room which was so full of stuff. He didn't think the kid was spoiled or anything, when he was younger he also had a lot more toys and games, he just felt a bit empty.
"Um, I have some old posters if you'd like… and we can change the bedsheets to something not so… err, brown"
Even if the best Alfred had to offer to his tastes was some plain navy bed sheets and a freebie poster from a magazine, he had to thank the kid for trying to cheer him up.
It was a long and slow first week living with his new family. There was something he felt about the way his father looked at him, eyes filled with pity. Alfred would leave for school every morning, take with him any semblance of warmth.
Steve seemed to be endlessly busy during the day making thousands of call and filling out paperwork. Arthur tried to find solace in reading, after all his books wouldn't ignore him.
He couldn't shake the feeling of displacement. Alfred sensed it too, the feeling of nervousness entering the house after the normality of his school day. No matter what they did Arthur didn't seem settled.
"Once you start school next week it'll start to feel more like home, it's just routine we're lacking," Steve smiled at the boys over dinner.
Alfred shovelled food into his mouth, concealing his grimace. Once Arthur started school it would be real, official. He'd have to tell his friends.